SBA Coronavirus funds for self employed and small businesses

[ceciltguitar]

https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs...relief-options

The EIDL loan appears to be practically a $10,000 grant:

“This loan advance will provide up to $10,000 of economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing temporary difficulties.”

There are other SBA assistances and loans available for small businesses, including self employed independent contractors.

For example the Paycheck Protection Program:

“This loan program provides loan forgiveness for retaining employees by temporarily expanding the traditional SBA 7(a) loan program.”

https://home.treasury.gov/system/fil...20Overview.pdf

[srick]

I’m going to give simplified explanations here. The SBA has fairly clear instructions to follow, as does the US Chamber of Commerce. The usual disclaimers apply - always call your accountant.

There are two programs through SBA:

1) EIDL is a combination grant and loan. Note that the grant “could be” up to $10,000. That being said, myself and many folks I know applied for this in mid March and have heard nothing.

2) PPP is a loan that also offers forgiveness of a portion of the loan, if you hire your employees back by June 30th. The amount you can borrow is dependent on your payroll. You can have an EIDL and a PPP, but the EIDL gets rolled into the PPP. Complicating the matter is that the Treasury Department has changed the rules several times along the way. So you need to get the latest info. As of today, April 9th, I know of only one employer who has received these funds.

Also, you may be eligible for unemployment. One of the provisions of the CARES act is that $600 per week is made available for sole-proprietors and the self-employed. The state unemployment agencies are swamped with applications, so good luck getting that.

And, your state may have established a short term loan program. I have applied for ours in Connecticut and am pretty sure I will get it. The CT program closed applications after one day because they had run through the 50 million allocated. The program was online at 9pm on a Thursday night and by 8 the next morning, when I applied, I was number 2080. 30 minutes later, they were up to 2500.

My advice is if you are self-employed, or a sole proprietor (or if you run a business, S Corporation, etc) you should be applying for these programs. If you eventually don’t need it, just pay it back to the government. Right now, cash is king and it may make the difference for you weathering this storm. Check out resources from your local and State Chambers of Commerce and possibly your US Senator’s page. Marco Rubio, for one, has been extremely proactive in putting up to date information on his website.

The rollout, as you have heard, has been flubbed. The banks were not ready and the mechanisms were not in place. I suspect that the funds will eventually get delivered and hope and pray that it gets us through.

Stay healthy everyone!

Best,

Rick

[TomB'sox]

This is a great topic to get information out there, but please remember to discuss the loans not politics as we move forward with this discussion or an informative thread will end up closed as we all know.

[fitness1]

Just yesterday I received this after applying for MI unemployment last Saturday. I'm a sole proprietor.




Although your claim for regular state unemployment benefits has been denied, you may qualify for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). PUA is a federal unemployment assistance program for individuals who are not eligible for a regular state unemployment insurance benefits claim. You do not need to do anything additional at this time to qualify for PUA.

Once PUA claims become available, we expect to use this claim denial to qualify you for PUA. If anything additional is needed for your PUA claim, you will be contacted. Continue to keep your email and mailing addresses up to date and monitor your Michigan Web Account Manager (MiWAM) regularly.

Coming up on a month's lost wages because of the state mandate to close.

I don't need a loan as I have plenty of savings. Working for 42 years without every taking a penny from unemployment.

I'm guessing I'm going to end up with nothing other than the 1200.00 (and it sounds like not until September if you don't have a direct deposit set up with the IRS)

[fitness1]

In doing some "research" this morning, I stumbled across this.

Doesn't really tell much, but at least a little hope for folks like myself.

From the U.S. Department of Labor

https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20200405

[srick]

Originally Posted by fitness1

In doing some "research" this morning, I stumbled across this.

Doesn't really tell much, but at least a little hope for folks like myself.

From the U.S. Department of Labor

https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20200405

Thanks for that. Every little scrap of information and every new interpretation seems to fill in the puzzle some more.

[reeve21]

Like Rick, I applied for a 10k disaster grant directly with the SBA on March 30. I received acknowledgment of the application, and nothing but crickets since. So much for promises that the money would arrive in 3 days (not that I believed it)!

Also applied for a PPP loan with our bank. They have to get it approved by SBA before approval. They have been pretty good, but at this point they don't know when or how much $ we will see.

[ceciltguitar]

https://www.nytimes.com/article/smal...ronavirus.html

[reeve21]

Just heard from our banker that the SBA has approved our paycheck protection program loan and assigned a number, but no word on when we will be funded. We applied a week ago today, the first day the program was open.

[srick]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Just heard from our banker that the SBA has approved our paycheck protection program loan and assigned a number, but no word on when we will be funded. We applied a week ago today, the first day the program was open.

Congrats Bob! My application is with People’s and hopefully that will come to pass soon, along with the Lamont loan and the EIDL. Of course, who knows when I’ll be cleared to start up the office again?!

What irony - this would be the perfect time for you and me and Jeff to jam together, but its the absolute worst time to get together! Stay healthy!

[Mr. Jelly]

I've read that the only way the government can get money to main street is through the banks. The big boys have accountants and attorneys and can deal directly with the government. So this is a bit of government subsidized business for the banks.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by srick

Congrats Bob! My application is with People’s and hopefully that will come to pass soon, along with the Lamont loan and the EIDL. Of course, who knows when I’ll be cleared to start up the office again?!

What irony - this would be the perfect time for you and me and Jeff to jam together, but its the absolute worst time to get together! Stay healthy!

Hi Rick,

We are also with Peoples. We are orphans from their recent acquisition of Farmington Bank and all of our contacts left. Not having a lending or personal relationship with anyone at the bank was a concern, but they have been great to us, very responsive. Yesterday they advised we should get it done next week.

I saw Jeff at the very beginning of this mess, back when we were eating out and bumping elbows. I look forward to putting this behind us and playing some music with you both. I enjoy playing with Jeff, love his vocals.

Stay well, keep

[srick]

Originally Posted by reeve21

We are also with Peoples. We are orphans from their recent acquisition of Farmington Bank

Same story here. I had tried to go through BofA where I have my business checking, but they were useless. I have a couple of business loans through Farmington\Peoples and that helped grease the gears.

Hope mine will come soon.